Health minister’s alarm on kidneys harvest abroad

From the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, comes an alarm to Nigerians on the escalation of the illicit trade in organ harvesting in foreign hospitals. This anxiety is underpinned by Egypt’s recent arraignment of 41 traffickers in this nefarious act. In a letter dated October 11, addressed to the President of the Nigeria Medical Association, Mike Ogirima, the minister listed some private hospitals in Egypt where the kidneys of unsuspecting victims are harvested. “Kindly note and disseminate this information to doctors in the relevant specialties to be aware so that Nigerians will be circumspect while embarking on medical tourism in other countries,” Adewole emphasised.

Nephrologists say that about 36.8 million Nigerians suffer various degrees of kidney disease. Pitiably, only 2,000 patients have access to dialysis, just as an estimated 17,000 cases are reported annually. This pathetic picture and lack of specialist hospitals that are equipped to handle these health complications compel Nigerians to hurriedly travel abroad in search of treatment. India, the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and even Egypt are favourite destinations. Nigerians spend $1 billion annually on health tourism, says the Minister of State for Health, Osagie Ehanire.

Nigerians may not have been among the victims of the 41 Egyptian crooks facing legal charges for this illegality, as its embassy in Abuja swiftly clarified; but they have fallen prey in China and other countries. Last year, a Non-Governmental Organisation – Patriotic Citizens Initiative – lamented that Nigerians “are being taken out and killed extra-judicially by Chinese prison officials for the purpose of harvesting and trading their body organs.”

China is notorious for this. It has attracted global condemnation, with the United Nations asking her to stop it. The victims are usually hard drug traffickers awaiting trial; those with forged travel documents, or foreigners that ran foul of that country’s draconian laws. But officials claim had been that majority of organs harvested came from prisoners on death row. This is an epic indignity.

Human rights groups disagree with China’s claim, insisting that prisoners of conscience – people gaoled for their beliefs – are also killed for the purpose of harvesting their kidneys and other vital organs. With a recent United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report that Nigerians and Pakistanis represent the highest percentage of the 1,559 drug traffickers behind bars, it means, therefore, that many of our citizens may have fallen victim to this inhuman, barbaric treatment.

Worldwide, a slew of traffickers are involved: those who deceive victims to sell their kidneys at little cost; dealers who convince victims to give up one of their kidneys for charity, and medical doctors that treat people for non-existent ailments and then remove their organs secretly. Apart from the kidney, other body parts harvested include hearts, limbs, lungs and eyes.

But this murderous engagement is a big global business, apparently because of the hot demand for body organs. For instance, there were 121,678 people waiting for life-saving organ transplants in the US last year. Out of this figure, 100,791 were kidney transplants, as of November 2016, according to the US National Kidney Foundation. On the average, 3,000 new patients are added to the list every month. In 2014, 4,761 patients died because of kidney scarcity.

Despite the traffickers being punished severely in various countries, the racketeering still thrives. In the US, a Federal Bureau of Investigation sting operation nabbed one Levy Rosenbaum, who was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for a black market sale of three kidneys for $400,000. The US Congress has passed a motion urging the US Department of State to conduct a detailed analysis of state-approved organ harvesting in China. Australia treats the inhuman trade as both an individual and public health hazard, just as Israel and Taiwan do, among others.

As a serious health crisis, the minister’s concern will be more meaningful if he could revolutionise Nigeria’s health care system to deliver the services that Nigerians seek abroad, thereby minimising the danger of organ harvesting. Further, the Federal Government should redouble its efforts in combating drug trafficking to reduce the number of her citizens that end up in Chinese prisons. It is a shame that there is no health centre of world class standard here. What should have been regarded as one is the State House Clinic, Abuja that takes care of the health of the President and his family.

However, the recent bombshell of the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, that the clinic was of no use to her when she was ill because of its dysfunctional X-ray machines and lack of syringes, says it all about the abysmal condition of our tertiary health institutions designated erroneously as centres of excellence. We have them in the University College Hospital, Ibadan; University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu; and Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital Zaria, dubbed as Neuroscience, Cardiothoracic Disorders and Oncology and Radiotherapy specialist centres, respectively. These health care centres are poorly funded, leading to perennial strikes by doctors and other personnel. Simply, they cannot deliver world-class services.

For the same reason, the N41 billion Ibom Specialist Hospital in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, which took off about two years ago, was shut down in September. Its foreign managers terminated their contract with the state government. This bodes ill for health care delivery; and it should bring the point home to the minister that Nigeria has yet to start her redemptive journey.

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